Recycling Needs A Shot In The Arm In Essex County, Advocates Say

ESSEX COUNTY, NJ — What actually happens to the bottles, cans and paper collected from Essex County residents? That will be the topic of a public meeting on recycling taking place on Monday, Jan. 22, advocates say.

The Gateway Group of the Sierra Club will be hosting the meeting at 7 p.m. at the Montclair Fire Department Headquarters, 1 Pine Street. Learn more or RSVP here.

Here’s what to expect, according to a news release from the group:

“Danielle Rapsas, a sophomore at Barnard College and a graduate of West Caldwell High School, completed the study as a summer intern with the Gateway Group. She is also a member of the Gateway Group Executive Committee and the political chair for the group. Danielle's presentation will cover why there is wide variation in recycling participation from town to town in Essex County, the economic and environmental benefits of recycling, and recommendations for improving recycling rates in the county. Copies of her report, Do You Know Where Essex County's Recyclables Go?, will be available for free at the meeting or it may be downloaded from the Sierra Club website. Also speaking will be Wayne DeFeo, Essex County Recycling Coordinator.”

Free parking will be available at the Bay Street Parking Garage, across the driveway from the fire department. Public transit options include the Montclair-Boonton line train (Bay Street Station) or NJ Transit bus (routes 28, 29 and 34), organizers said.

Here are some things to consider about recycling in Essex County, according to Rapsas’ report.

• New Jersey has passed 4 major laws governing recycling since 1981.
• Essex County as whole only recycles 29% of its waste. In contrast, Germany recycles 62%.
• Recycling currently employs 27,000 individuals in New Jersey
• Essex County’s decentralized responsibility for recycling makes it difficult to develop a consistent standard for recycling across all 22 municipalities. In contrast, solid waste disposal is handled centrally within the county, with all waste going to the Covanta incinerator in the Ironbound section of Newark
• Even when prices paid to municipalities for recycled materials are low, recycling is far cheaper than landfilling or incinerating those materials, and therefore every effort should be made to increase recycling participation
• Dual stream recycling (in which homeowners separate paper from other recyclables at the curbside) is more efficient and economical for towns than single stream recycling, in which paper, plastic, and metals are commingled
• Separate municipal contracts with Material Recovery Facilities (MRFs) limits the types of materials that a municipality can accept for recycling
• Recycling education needs to be expanded and standardized as a pre- requisite to improving recycling rates
• Collection of recycling statistics from commercial, industrial, and institutional facilities varies significantly between towns, resulting in failure to claim their maximum tonnage 2 grants under the Clean Communities and Recycling Act of 1981 and the Recycling Enhancement Act of 2008
• Essex County municipalities do not maximize their eligibility for state recycling grants and do not use their annual recycling tonnage grants to expand recycling programs within their communities

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